Hey people of mtgsalvation!
So I've been itching to buy a new commander deck but the slave to phyrexia in me isn't letting me look at too many legendary creatures. I've tried building Ezuri but he always ends up being more simic goodstuff or elfball than I'd like. The Praetors all seem a little too weak to be the commanders of a deck with the exception of Vorinclex, Skittles and Sheoldred but I'm desperately trying to branch out from black. Our playgroup already has a Glissa player otherwise I would've built her in a heartbeat. We also have an Atraxa superfriends player but I feel like if I can make a Vorthos Atraxa infect deck that would be alright by the group's standards. I found an old article by Vorthos Mike on a compleated commander deck and I would love some input from others on how to bring it up to 75% (or hell even 60%). Please let me know what kind of changes you think can be made to make this deck a little more viable!
First, I'd like to commend you on applying the ways of Vorthos to a commander deck. It reminds me of my Marchesa, the Black Rose deck where every creature is either a Rogue or Assassin. Far from optimized, but that's not even close to the point. In other words, I'm quite happy to help you get the deck to be as good as possible without disrupting that sweet, sweet flavor.
However, before I start digging for cards to suggest, I need to know the scope of the viable cards. From your linked list, it seems that cards from either Mirrodin block or cards that directly say "Phyrexian" in their name are on the table, as they should be. But how far are you willing to reach? What about cards that feature Phyrexians in the art, such as No Mercy (well, the original art, I can't remember how to force which image these links display...)? To go another step deeper, what about cards set on the plane of Rath, which was artificially created by Yawgmoth to be a staging ground for the Invasion? I always think bigger pools are better when trying to build to flavor, but it's obviously your call. Once I know the parameters, I'll dig around and see what's worth suggesting.
I mean honestly New Phyrexia is my love in life but I'm totally good to go back to the Invasion block and early Phyrexia (after all invasion is what they do best.) I know about Rath but a lot less about the cards from it. Anything Phyrexia is a friend of me though. I appreciate you digging around for some good cards! I don't know how I managed to forget No Mercy. I love that card way too much to forget. Let me know what you've got whenever you're free! I'd also love to see your Marchesa deck if you still have a list!
I'll have to get my Marchesa list up on TappedOut, then I can easily share it.
One of the nice points about digging into Phyrexia's past is that the Oil never forgets. It basically has perfect genetic memory. After all, there were only a few drops present when Karn first created Mirrodin, and look how far we've come
So, before I just go rattling off objectively interesting cards that tie to Phyrexia in some way, I'm curious as to your primary objective for the deck. There's certainly a fair bit of infect in your deck, so I'm guessing that's your ideal route to victory. With that in mind, I'm curious about the presence of a few cards (and don't shy away from "I just love <thing x> about the card" as a reason for including it):
Shattered Angel: Is the intent to offset the life payments for Phyrexian Delver, Reclamation, and Lens? If so, I can see the value in that, though perhaps just making Atraxa stronger, given her lifelink, would be more in tune with your moderately aggressive goal.
Tanglewalker: This card seems quite niche, unless your meta is chock full of artifact lands.
Evil Presence: Is this here to combat powerful lands in your meta?
Aether Snap: Even if this is powerful in your meta, it will still undo any work you've done putting -1/-1 counters on your opponent's creatures.
Caged Sun: While this is certainly a powerful card, it doesn't exactly shine in a four-color deck. Also, revering the suns is something those pathetic Mirrans do (The original printing carries the Mirran watermark)
Coldsteel Heart: In a four-color deck, you really want your mana rocks to provide multiple colors. Also, why invest in cheap Dominarian metal when some locally sourced Darksteel costs just a little more? Read: Darksteel Ingot
Sphere of the Suns: While it's decent fixing for the deck, it reeks of the same Mirran weakness as Caged Sun. (Again, the original card bears the Mirran watermark) A roughly equivalent card would be Pentad Prism. It provides one less mana overall, but it can deliver two at once, which can be a boon to playing Atraxa.
So, those are the cards I'm questioning in your current list. I'm also wondering where the other Praetors are. I admit that Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur can be tough to manage in a deck not prepared for massive grips of cards, but Sheoldred, Whispering One and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger are just pure value. Sheoldred even becomes unblockable with Urborg or Evil Presence.
Speaking of Urborg synergy, and also as a means to power up Atraxa and the little infect guys, you could look into Lashwrithe and/or Nightmare Lash. If you do want to lean on Urborg a little harder, don't forget that Sylvan Scrying was originally printed in Mirrodin. Along the same vein of empowering Atraxa, you could consider Grafted Exoskeleton to give her permanent infect rather than a one shot deal.
I'll wait for your response before pressing forward. One other thing that would be useful to know is your budget for suggestions. I don't want to rattle off a bunch of expensive old cards if they're just out of the question.
Budget is no issue, you go ahead and rattle off all the old expensive cards you want! Back to the deck, I briefly mentioned this in the original post but this deck is actually based off of Vorthos Mike's work. Honestly the points you make about Tanglewalker, Caged Sun etc. are perfectly valid and are the first places I would look when making cuts (especially if I'm cutting for a card like Birthing Pod like damn why isn't that there?) I will say I do love shattered angel in the deck if only because Phyrexian angels are just so beautiful. I would love to fit the other praetors in the deck but getting them there makes the deck feel very clunky outside of a reanimator theme. Lashwrithe and Nightmare Lash look like they would be great picks (especially that living weapon!) and I think Grafted Exoskeleton would make a great fit here. I'll definitely pull out those cards you mention and we'll see what kind of work space we have for the deck. You really seem to have some passion for the mtg story I very much appreciate the help and I have high hopes of getting this deck to a point where it's playable!
Gasp!, using a filthy Mirran sword in your list! Here's some missing cards you might consider;
Phyrexian Scriptures: Surely a flavor win? You can definitely get nasty using Hex Parasite with it (which is also in-theme, I'd actually consider swapping Aether Snap for the parasite).
Phyrexian Gargantua: With your reanimation package, running this guy should be good, card draw is always pretty solid.
Rout: The newest printing is definitely flavorful in here, and wraths are always great when you get slowed down.
Phyrexian Plaguelord: He doesn't advance the infect theme directly, but he is a really good sac outlet and is really great at knocking down pesky utility creatures.
Lumovanis, good catch on the sword. I wasn't thinking about their watermarks, and that one in particular out of the cycle just doesn't *feel* very Mirran. Also, Phyrexian Scriptures was basically going to be first on my list of general suggestions, once we'd gotten the deck's theme and goals established. And yes, it does work quite well with Hex Parasite.
Kingtuf, yes, I am quite passionate about the lore of this game. I started playing way back in 1994, and the story behind the game has always captured my attention at least as much as the cards themselves, sometimes more. I always thought the Phyrexians were highly intriguing, and their evolution on New Phyrexia has been even more so. Anyway, on to some cards (as a note, any time I am talking about a card's art, I am referring to the art of the card's first printing, unless otherwise noted)!
Ezuri, Claw of Progress, seems like a pretty solid inclusion. Your current list has 11 creatures that would trigger his experience gain, which isn't a ton, but every point of power you can add to an infect creature is worth it. Also, his synergy with proliferate is amazing. Not only can you ratchet up the creatures he's already given counters to, but you can also proliferate the experience counters themselves, since *you* have those counters. Also, as a Mirran hero who has been blessed with compleation, he's quite the flavor win.
Since we're reaching into every nook and cranny of Phyrexian involvement, Volrath's Stronghold can come to the party, as the one-time seat of power on Rath. It's quite the solid piece of recursion. This structure was brought to Dominaria during the planar overlay stage of the Invasion, and later became the base of operations for the Cabal, as seen in the brand new Cabal Stronghold. While Cabal Stronghold isn't recommended for a four-color deck, the card that its a "fixed" version of, Cabal Coffers, would be another great piece of synergy with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. I can't recall if the novels ever specifically stated that the Coffers were in the Stronghold, but where else would they be? A word of advice though: while Coffers is insanely powerful with Urborg, it won't be stellar in this deck without it. So unless you are going to include a few ways to search out any land, it might be better to pass on this one.
Ritual of the Machine is a cool old card, and no one ever sees this effect coming from black. It's similar to the already called out Gate to Phyrexia in that regard, though since you have access to green you can easily remove artifacts. Running Gate would be a very Vorthos decision, though. Anyway, Ritual of the Machine references the cultists in the city of Soldev, which was the home to one Arcum Dagsson during the final days of the Ice Age. He had dug up and rebuilt or repurposed a number of things from the time of the Brother's War, but he was completely ignorant to the fact that Mishra's side of that war was guided by the Phyrexians. Thus, as is the way with any place Phyrexia finds a foothold, a certain section of the populace fell into unsavory practices.
Sleeper's Robe can give some much needed evasion to your little infect guys, though it does of course have the standard potential for card disadvantage when someone kills your aura-wearing creature. The card is referencing the Sleeper Agents, which Phyrexia always sent as the first wave when invading a new plane. Sleeper's Guile plays in the same space as Sleeper's Robe, though you'd trade card draw for the aura recurring itself. Guile would likely be preferable in a format as riddled with removal and board wipes as EDH is.
Phyrexian Rager is the little brother to the aforementioned Phyrexian Gargantua, and has all the same benefits as were mentioned there. Abyssal Horror and Cackling Fiend are sort of the inverse of the Gargantua and the Rager, though they're really only useful if you've got a direct-to-battlefield reanimation engine running. Otherwise they're rather expensive for what they do.
Stronghold Assassin and Attrition are pretty much the same card, just that one is a creature, and therefor easier to recover from the graveyard, and the other is an enchantment, which does have the benefit of multiple uses in one turn. In my opinion Attrition is clearly stronger, though the Assassin is superior flavor. Not only can you tell he's Phyrexian just by looking at him, but Attrition actually depicts one of our own being stuffed into a fire by some stinking, dirty elves. Rathi Assassin is Stronghold Assassin's dramatically weaker cousin, and Tsabo's Assassin is the math nerd of the family. Eastern Paladin and Western Paladin are likely too niche unless your meta is heavily color-skewed, but they are pretty bad ass depictions of Phyrexian knights.
In the line of instant/sorcery removal, Befoul can also hit a land, and the art depicts the corrupting influence of Phyrexia on Serra's Realm. Phyrexia never actually invaded that loathsome white mana paradise, but when Urza fled there after his failed attempt at a solo raid on our home plane, the taint he carried away with him was too much for those pansies to handle. As always, the smallest drop of Oil is all it takes. Eradicate is an exile removal spell, but you won't get to use its full text box outside of weird corner cases with token copies of creatures, unless someone has animated a basic land. And yes, that works, I was actually doing that in standard all those years ago. (By this point I'm sure you've noticed, if you weren't already aware, that the majority of black's removal back in the day had that annoying "nonblack, nonartifact" clause to it. It was a flavor choice for the Alpha card Terror that meddled in black's affairs *WAY* longer than it should have.) Vile Requiem could have some interesting interplay with proliferate, and the art is almost certainly representative of the organ in Elesh Norn's church. Annihilate is not spectacular, but it is on-flavor removal at instant speed.
Beast Within, on the other hand, is an on-flavor format staple because it can hit any permanent at instant speed. You should absolutely be running this card.
Lobotomy and Praetor's Grasp can both function as preemptive removal, particularly useful if there are combo decks in your meta. For EDH, Grasp is the better card since you'll never hit the multiple copies that Lobotomy grabs and, assuming you aren't using it as a combo buster, you can just plain steal a card from an opponent's deck for your own devious purposes. If you are using it to block a combo though, you're better off never playing the card unless it will allow you to win the game, because then you're just giving your opponent the chance to get their combo piece back. If you do decide to use Lobotomy, this is a case where both printings have on-flavor art. The Tempest printing is clearly some poor bastard hooked up to a Phyrexian torture device that you just know Jin-Gitaxias has a version of, and the Invasion printing depicts Tsabo Tavoc, the front-line general for Phyrexia during the Invasion.
Order of Yawgmoth comes with evasion as well as makes your opponent discard when it connects. This is a prime candidate for Grafted Exoskeleton, and a fantastic piece of art.
There are a number of reanimation spells from some old sets where, by and large, black cards were connected to Phyrexia. Reanimate is a staple for reanimator decks, Unearth is good if your creatures skew towards little guys, Exhume is cheap but you have to be mindful of what your opponent's have access to, and Victimize is just a ton of value. From a flavor perspective, I'd rank the "Phyrexian-ness" of the art in the following order, from least to most: Reanimate (hooks and chains are hardly exclusive to Phyrexia), Unearth (the style of the claws on the hand suggest, at least to me, that this is some kind of compleated creature rising from a grave), Exhume (no lore-wise person could mistake who's taking action in that image), and Victimize (this literally depicts Xantcha, a known Sleeper Agent, being cast down by other Phyrexians, which is the only reason I have to give it the edge over Exhume. That said, I personally think the art of Exhume *feels* much more Phyrexian). As I was proofreading this before posting, I remembered that the Masters 25 printing of Unearth has actually upset this order by moving into the most flavorful position. This new art depicts a Phyrexian Negator climbing out of a crack in the ground, which I have to assume is one of the fissures on Tolaria that the Phyrexians were occupying during the events of Urza's Legacy. That would put this art, chronologically, just before (or, I suppose, during) the art for No Mercy.
Diabolic Servitude is in the other class of reanimation "spells", auras. They don't make cards like this, Animate Dead, or Necromancy any more because while they are easy enough for a player to understand, the wall of rules text required to make it technically function is daunting. Just look at the Eternal Masters printing of Animate Dead if you haven't seen it yet. Anyway, this is another card with clear, strong Phyrexian elements in the art, and also has the built-in recursion that Sleeper's Guile does (it was something they played with in the block to overcome the inherent card disadvantage of auras, with Rancor being by far the most famous of them).
Yawgmoth's Will is not only one of the best graveyard recovery spells every printed, but you don't get much more Phyrexian than the name of this card.
Given what you said about loving Phyrexian angels, I wanted to list the others I'm aware of. I don't know that any of them are really a good fit for the deck, but I thought you'd want to know about Crypt Angel, Selenia, Dark Angel, and Desolation Angel. Desolation Angel *is* Selenia, she just got an armor upgrade for the Invasion. My inclusion of Crypt Angel in the list is based on inference rather than obvious art. The flavor text is a strong clue, and blue and red were the only colors Phyrexia dabbled in before their glorious rebirth.
Entropic Specter is more interesting in multiplayer EDH games than it ever was in Standard. You'll want to choose the opponent who's always got a full grip (read: the blue player) as the one giving it power, and then you can make your other opponents discard when you hit them.
Ertai, the Corrupted is another example of a hero turned Phyrexian disciple, and he also acts as a bit of defense against game-ending, or at least game-warping, spells.
This seems like a good place to stop for now, as these are the cards I felt worth mentioning that are pre-Modern. I'm sorry if this post is a lot longer than anything you were expecting, but once I started down memory lane I found it quite difficult to stop. I acknowledge that only a few of these suggestions really play into the mechanical themes of your deck, but I'll try to make that more of a focus when I get to trawling through Modern-legal cards. To be frank, though, mechanical themes just weren't as tight back in the day. It might be until the start of next week until I have the time to get back to this, just letting you know so that you don't think I've walked away. The nostalgia this is drumming up is even more fun than I was expecting!
Wow thank you guys very much for all of the suggestions! EbonRose, that certainly was so much more than I expected but exactly what I wanted. Fantastic piece. I have a lot to think about and I am super looking forward to seeing what I can do with the given information. The mana curve for this deck is gonna be out of this world though... You are right when you say that thing weren't always so mechanically sound but I've gotta work with what I can for at least the next year. I look forward to any additional information you have to offer! I am very excited to see what I can do with this deck with all these ideas stirring in my head. Anticipating future responses!!
Thank you for your kind words. As I said, trawling through all those old cards was more fun than I'd anticipated. I'm *constantly* building Commander decks, but it's been a long time since I've browsed the old cards through a lens that is both so focused yet so expansive.
You are right that, as it stands, your curve is high. You're also a bit light on ramp. I've had great success following the basic recipe that I got from the Command Zone podcast, which is as follows:
8-10 ramp and/or color fixing cards
5-7 card draw and/or card selection cards
5-7 targeted removal cards
3-5 board wipes/sweepers
Fill the rest with the cards relevant to your mechanical or flavor goals.
In a four color deck, I would definitely start with 10 ramp/fixing cards. You can always cut one or two later if it turns out to be too much. Shocklands and fetchlands are obviously the gold standard when it comes to fixing, but I'm sure you already knew that, so I won't bother mentioning it beyond this point. With the rare exception of lands that actually ramp (like Krosan Verge) or fix colors for more than one land (like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth) I don't usually count lands in this category. Looking at your current list, I would classify the following cards as at least nominally in this category:
Of these, most of the cards have actually already been mentioned earlier for at least flavor concerns, and those comments, as well as the substitutions I suggested, still stand. Altar of Shadows is indeed a powerful card, but asks quite the mana investment to get rolling. If you want to run it as a repeatable source of removal, go right ahead, but I would classify it's mana as a bonus rather than a core ramp effect. Even with the synergy it gets from proliferate, you're still investing a whopping 14 mana to get that first charge counter! I'll also take a moment to expound upon my earlier comments regarding Evil Presence. It can certainly work as soft land hate (as opposed to hard hate, like destroying), and there's no shortage of powerful lands in Commander. It can also act as redundancy for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you do wind up running Sheoldred, Whispering One or, better yet for your strategy, Filth. So I don't think it's a terrible card here, but I wouldn't consider it color fixing for your own needs.
With all that said, as well as factoring in earlier suggested swaps, we wind up with a ramp/fixing package containing:
That's only five cards, and as I said regarding four color decks, I'd definitely start with 10 and go from there. We do run into the issue of Phyrexia having very little to offer this category, so we'll shoot for flavor neutral cards to fill out the list. To fill out the list, I'd suggest the following:
Sol Ring (this card is in almost every deck for a reason) Chromatic Lantern (this card should pretty much be an auto-include for any deck with 3+ colors) Cultivate (*very* popular in green decks, and a strong friend to a land base full of basics) Explosive Vegetation (for one more colorless mana, we get a slightly more powerful card) Sylvan Scrying (finds Urborg, and any other utility lands you wind up running)
Now, if you are willing to stretch into non-Phyrexian, non-neutral flavor cards (but still not Mirran, never Mirran) then I would run Kodama's Reach instead of Explosive Vegetation. Yes, it's a functional reprint of Cultivate, but sometimes getting your ramp cast at 3 mana versus 4 can make a big difference. And while not *specifically* flavored for Zendikar (though it's pretty close) Expedition Map could replace Sylvan Scrying if you wanted the same effect with no color requirements.
Finally, I'd be remiss to not discuss Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. He's 110% on flavor, and he's *super* powerful. I didn't include him in the list of 10 because of his price tag and your previous comment about not being sure you wanted to run the other Praetors. But if there's just one more Praetor you'd consider running, I'd make it him. He actually gives you the Caged Sun effect for your four color deck, and basically halving your opponent's mana can be backbreaking. He does draw a lot of hate, but it's hardly undeserved. If you do decide to run him, I wouldn't take out one of the other ramp cards for him. At 8 mana he's not really going to help you "get there", he's much more of a closer.
I'll end my ramp discussion here and give you some more time to mull things over. I'd strongly recommend this be the category of cards you sort out first, since it doesn't matter how awesome the rest of your deck is if you never have the mana to play those cards
So I've been itching to buy a new commander deck but the slave to phyrexia in me isn't letting me look at too many legendary creatures. I've tried building Ezuri but he always ends up being more simic goodstuff or elfball than I'd like. The Praetors all seem a little too weak to be the commanders of a deck with the exception of Vorinclex, Skittles and Sheoldred but I'm desperately trying to branch out from black. Our playgroup already has a Glissa player otherwise I would've built her in a heartbeat. We also have an Atraxa superfriends player but I feel like if I can make a Vorthos Atraxa infect deck that would be alright by the group's standards. I found an old article by Vorthos Mike on a compleated commander deck and I would love some input from others on how to bring it up to 75% (or hell even 60%). Please let me know what kind of changes you think can be made to make this deck a little more viable!
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/infect-cmdr/
Thank you!
However, before I start digging for cards to suggest, I need to know the scope of the viable cards. From your linked list, it seems that cards from either Mirrodin block or cards that directly say "Phyrexian" in their name are on the table, as they should be. But how far are you willing to reach? What about cards that feature Phyrexians in the art, such as No Mercy (well, the original art, I can't remember how to force which image these links display...)? To go another step deeper, what about cards set on the plane of Rath, which was artificially created by Yawgmoth to be a staging ground for the Invasion? I always think bigger pools are better when trying to build to flavor, but it's obviously your call. Once I know the parameters, I'll dig around and see what's worth suggesting.
One of the nice points about digging into Phyrexia's past is that the Oil never forgets. It basically has perfect genetic memory. After all, there were only a few drops present when Karn first created Mirrodin, and look how far we've come
So, before I just go rattling off objectively interesting cards that tie to Phyrexia in some way, I'm curious as to your primary objective for the deck. There's certainly a fair bit of infect in your deck, so I'm guessing that's your ideal route to victory. With that in mind, I'm curious about the presence of a few cards (and don't shy away from "I just love <thing x> about the card" as a reason for including it):
Shattered Angel: Is the intent to offset the life payments for Phyrexian Delver, Reclamation, and Lens? If so, I can see the value in that, though perhaps just making Atraxa stronger, given her lifelink, would be more in tune with your moderately aggressive goal.
Tanglewalker: This card seems quite niche, unless your meta is chock full of artifact lands.
Evil Presence: Is this here to combat powerful lands in your meta?
Aether Snap: Even if this is powerful in your meta, it will still undo any work you've done putting -1/-1 counters on your opponent's creatures.
Caged Sun: While this is certainly a powerful card, it doesn't exactly shine in a four-color deck. Also, revering the suns is something those pathetic Mirrans do (The original printing carries the Mirran watermark)
Coldsteel Heart: In a four-color deck, you really want your mana rocks to provide multiple colors. Also, why invest in cheap Dominarian metal when some locally sourced Darksteel costs just a little more? Read: Darksteel Ingot
Sphere of the Suns: While it's decent fixing for the deck, it reeks of the same Mirran weakness as Caged Sun. (Again, the original card bears the Mirran watermark) A roughly equivalent card would be Pentad Prism. It provides one less mana overall, but it can deliver two at once, which can be a boon to playing Atraxa.
So, those are the cards I'm questioning in your current list. I'm also wondering where the other Praetors are. I admit that Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur can be tough to manage in a deck not prepared for massive grips of cards, but Sheoldred, Whispering One and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger are just pure value. Sheoldred even becomes unblockable with Urborg or Evil Presence.
Speaking of Urborg synergy, and also as a means to power up Atraxa and the little infect guys, you could look into Lashwrithe and/or Nightmare Lash. If you do want to lean on Urborg a little harder, don't forget that Sylvan Scrying was originally printed in Mirrodin. Along the same vein of empowering Atraxa, you could consider Grafted Exoskeleton to give her permanent infect rather than a one shot deal.
I'll wait for your response before pressing forward. One other thing that would be useful to know is your budget for suggestions. I don't want to rattle off a bunch of expensive old cards if they're just out of the question.
Phyrexian Scriptures: Surely a flavor win? You can definitely get nasty using Hex Parasite with it (which is also in-theme, I'd actually consider swapping Aether Snap for the parasite).
Phyrexian Gargantua: With your reanimation package, running this guy should be good, card draw is always pretty solid.
Rout: The newest printing is definitely flavorful in here, and wraths are always great when you get slowed down.
Gate to Phyrexia: Good with your recursion stuff.
Phyrexian Plaguelord: He doesn't advance the infect theme directly, but he is a really good sac outlet and is really great at knocking down pesky utility creatures.
Kingtuf, yes, I am quite passionate about the lore of this game. I started playing way back in 1994, and the story behind the game has always captured my attention at least as much as the cards themselves, sometimes more. I always thought the Phyrexians were highly intriguing, and their evolution on New Phyrexia has been even more so. Anyway, on to some cards (as a note, any time I am talking about a card's art, I am referring to the art of the card's first printing, unless otherwise noted)!
Ezuri, Claw of Progress, seems like a pretty solid inclusion. Your current list has 11 creatures that would trigger his experience gain, which isn't a ton, but every point of power you can add to an infect creature is worth it. Also, his synergy with proliferate is amazing. Not only can you ratchet up the creatures he's already given counters to, but you can also proliferate the experience counters themselves, since *you* have those counters. Also, as a Mirran hero who has been blessed with compleation, he's quite the flavor win.
Since we're reaching into every nook and cranny of Phyrexian involvement, Volrath's Stronghold can come to the party, as the one-time seat of power on Rath. It's quite the solid piece of recursion. This structure was brought to Dominaria during the planar overlay stage of the Invasion, and later became the base of operations for the Cabal, as seen in the brand new Cabal Stronghold. While Cabal Stronghold isn't recommended for a four-color deck, the card that its a "fixed" version of, Cabal Coffers, would be another great piece of synergy with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. I can't recall if the novels ever specifically stated that the Coffers were in the Stronghold, but where else would they be? A word of advice though: while Coffers is insanely powerful with Urborg, it won't be stellar in this deck without it. So unless you are going to include a few ways to search out any land, it might be better to pass on this one.
Ritual of the Machine is a cool old card, and no one ever sees this effect coming from black. It's similar to the already called out Gate to Phyrexia in that regard, though since you have access to green you can easily remove artifacts. Running Gate would be a very Vorthos decision, though. Anyway, Ritual of the Machine references the cultists in the city of Soldev, which was the home to one Arcum Dagsson during the final days of the Ice Age. He had dug up and rebuilt or repurposed a number of things from the time of the Brother's War, but he was completely ignorant to the fact that Mishra's side of that war was guided by the Phyrexians. Thus, as is the way with any place Phyrexia finds a foothold, a certain section of the populace fell into unsavory practices.
Sleeper's Robe can give some much needed evasion to your little infect guys, though it does of course have the standard potential for card disadvantage when someone kills your aura-wearing creature. The card is referencing the Sleeper Agents, which Phyrexia always sent as the first wave when invading a new plane. Sleeper's Guile plays in the same space as Sleeper's Robe, though you'd trade card draw for the aura recurring itself. Guile would likely be preferable in a format as riddled with removal and board wipes as EDH is.
Phyrexian Rager is the little brother to the aforementioned Phyrexian Gargantua, and has all the same benefits as were mentioned there. Abyssal Horror and Cackling Fiend are sort of the inverse of the Gargantua and the Rager, though they're really only useful if you've got a direct-to-battlefield reanimation engine running. Otherwise they're rather expensive for what they do.
Stronghold Assassin and Attrition are pretty much the same card, just that one is a creature, and therefor easier to recover from the graveyard, and the other is an enchantment, which does have the benefit of multiple uses in one turn. In my opinion Attrition is clearly stronger, though the Assassin is superior flavor. Not only can you tell he's Phyrexian just by looking at him, but Attrition actually depicts one of our own being stuffed into a fire by some stinking, dirty elves. Rathi Assassin is Stronghold Assassin's dramatically weaker cousin, and Tsabo's Assassin is the math nerd of the family. Eastern Paladin and Western Paladin are likely too niche unless your meta is heavily color-skewed, but they are pretty bad ass depictions of Phyrexian knights.
In the line of instant/sorcery removal, Befoul can also hit a land, and the art depicts the corrupting influence of Phyrexia on Serra's Realm. Phyrexia never actually invaded that loathsome white mana paradise, but when Urza fled there after his failed attempt at a solo raid on our home plane, the taint he carried away with him was too much for those pansies to handle. As always, the smallest drop of Oil is all it takes. Eradicate is an exile removal spell, but you won't get to use its full text box outside of weird corner cases with token copies of creatures, unless someone has animated a basic land. And yes, that works, I was actually doing that in standard all those years ago. (By this point I'm sure you've noticed, if you weren't already aware, that the majority of black's removal back in the day had that annoying "nonblack, nonartifact" clause to it. It was a flavor choice for the Alpha card Terror that meddled in black's affairs *WAY* longer than it should have.) Vile Requiem could have some interesting interplay with proliferate, and the art is almost certainly representative of the organ in Elesh Norn's church. Annihilate is not spectacular, but it is on-flavor removal at instant speed.
Beast Within, on the other hand, is an on-flavor format staple because it can hit any permanent at instant speed. You should absolutely be running this card.
Lobotomy and Praetor's Grasp can both function as preemptive removal, particularly useful if there are combo decks in your meta. For EDH, Grasp is the better card since you'll never hit the multiple copies that Lobotomy grabs and, assuming you aren't using it as a combo buster, you can just plain steal a card from an opponent's deck for your own devious purposes. If you are using it to block a combo though, you're better off never playing the card unless it will allow you to win the game, because then you're just giving your opponent the chance to get their combo piece back. If you do decide to use Lobotomy, this is a case where both printings have on-flavor art. The Tempest printing is clearly some poor bastard hooked up to a Phyrexian torture device that you just know Jin-Gitaxias has a version of, and the Invasion printing depicts Tsabo Tavoc, the front-line general for Phyrexia during the Invasion.
Order of Yawgmoth comes with evasion as well as makes your opponent discard when it connects. This is a prime candidate for Grafted Exoskeleton, and a fantastic piece of art.
There are a number of reanimation spells from some old sets where, by and large, black cards were connected to Phyrexia. Reanimate is a staple for reanimator decks, Unearth is good if your creatures skew towards little guys, Exhume is cheap but you have to be mindful of what your opponent's have access to, and Victimize is just a ton of value. From a flavor perspective, I'd rank the "Phyrexian-ness" of the art in the following order, from least to most: Reanimate (hooks and chains are hardly exclusive to Phyrexia), Unearth (the style of the claws on the hand suggest, at least to me, that this is some kind of compleated creature rising from a grave), Exhume (no lore-wise person could mistake who's taking action in that image), and Victimize (this literally depicts Xantcha, a known Sleeper Agent, being cast down by other Phyrexians, which is the only reason I have to give it the edge over Exhume. That said, I personally think the art of Exhume *feels* much more Phyrexian). As I was proofreading this before posting, I remembered that the Masters 25 printing of Unearth has actually upset this order by moving into the most flavorful position. This new art depicts a Phyrexian Negator climbing out of a crack in the ground, which I have to assume is one of the fissures on Tolaria that the Phyrexians were occupying during the events of Urza's Legacy. That would put this art, chronologically, just before (or, I suppose, during) the art for No Mercy.
Diabolic Servitude is in the other class of reanimation "spells", auras. They don't make cards like this, Animate Dead, or Necromancy any more because while they are easy enough for a player to understand, the wall of rules text required to make it technically function is daunting. Just look at the Eternal Masters printing of Animate Dead if you haven't seen it yet. Anyway, this is another card with clear, strong Phyrexian elements in the art, and also has the built-in recursion that Sleeper's Guile does (it was something they played with in the block to overcome the inherent card disadvantage of auras, with Rancor being by far the most famous of them).
Yawgmoth's Will is not only one of the best graveyard recovery spells every printed, but you don't get much more Phyrexian than the name of this card.
Given what you said about loving Phyrexian angels, I wanted to list the others I'm aware of. I don't know that any of them are really a good fit for the deck, but I thought you'd want to know about Crypt Angel, Selenia, Dark Angel, and Desolation Angel. Desolation Angel *is* Selenia, she just got an armor upgrade for the Invasion. My inclusion of Crypt Angel in the list is based on inference rather than obvious art. The flavor text is a strong clue, and blue and red were the only colors Phyrexia dabbled in before their glorious rebirth.
Entropic Specter is more interesting in multiplayer EDH games than it ever was in Standard. You'll want to choose the opponent who's always got a full grip (read: the blue player) as the one giving it power, and then you can make your other opponents discard when you hit them.
Ertai, the Corrupted is another example of a hero turned Phyrexian disciple, and he also acts as a bit of defense against game-ending, or at least game-warping, spells.
This seems like a good place to stop for now, as these are the cards I felt worth mentioning that are pre-Modern. I'm sorry if this post is a lot longer than anything you were expecting, but once I started down memory lane I found it quite difficult to stop. I acknowledge that only a few of these suggestions really play into the mechanical themes of your deck, but I'll try to make that more of a focus when I get to trawling through Modern-legal cards. To be frank, though, mechanical themes just weren't as tight back in the day. It might be until the start of next week until I have the time to get back to this, just letting you know so that you don't think I've walked away. The nostalgia this is drumming up is even more fun than I was expecting!
You are right that, as it stands, your curve is high. You're also a bit light on ramp. I've had great success following the basic recipe that I got from the Command Zone podcast, which is as follows:
8-10 ramp and/or color fixing cards
5-7 card draw and/or card selection cards
5-7 targeted removal cards
3-5 board wipes/sweepers
Fill the rest with the cards relevant to your mechanical or flavor goals.
In a four color deck, I would definitely start with 10 ramp/fixing cards. You can always cut one or two later if it turns out to be too much. Shocklands and fetchlands are obviously the gold standard when it comes to fixing, but I'm sure you already knew that, so I won't bother mentioning it beyond this point. With the rare exception of lands that actually ramp (like Krosan Verge) or fix colors for more than one land (like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth) I don't usually count lands in this category. Looking at your current list, I would classify the following cards as at least nominally in this category:
Viridian Emissary
Evil Presence
Altar of Shadows
Caged Sun
Coldsteel Heart
Mycosynth Wellspring
Phyrexian Lens
Sphere of the Suns
Sword of Feast and Famine
Of these, most of the cards have actually already been mentioned earlier for at least flavor concerns, and those comments, as well as the substitutions I suggested, still stand. Altar of Shadows is indeed a powerful card, but asks quite the mana investment to get rolling. If you want to run it as a repeatable source of removal, go right ahead, but I would classify it's mana as a bonus rather than a core ramp effect. Even with the synergy it gets from proliferate, you're still investing a whopping 14 mana to get that first charge counter! I'll also take a moment to expound upon my earlier comments regarding Evil Presence. It can certainly work as soft land hate (as opposed to hard hate, like destroying), and there's no shortage of powerful lands in Commander. It can also act as redundancy for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you do wind up running Sheoldred, Whispering One or, better yet for your strategy, Filth. So I don't think it's a terrible card here, but I wouldn't consider it color fixing for your own needs.
With all that said, as well as factoring in earlier suggested swaps, we wind up with a ramp/fixing package containing:
Viridian Emissary (he's on flavor and perfectly functional)
Darksteel Ingot (replacing Coldsteel Heart)
Mycosynth Wellspring (also on flavor and perfectly functional)
Phyrexian Lens (not exactly a top tier card for this category, but very flavorful)
Pentad Prism (replacing Sphere of the Suns, assuming you want an equivalent)
That's only five cards, and as I said regarding four color decks, I'd definitely start with 10 and go from there. We do run into the issue of Phyrexia having very little to offer this category, so we'll shoot for flavor neutral cards to fill out the list. To fill out the list, I'd suggest the following:
Sol Ring (this card is in almost every deck for a reason)
Chromatic Lantern (this card should pretty much be an auto-include for any deck with 3+ colors)
Cultivate (*very* popular in green decks, and a strong friend to a land base full of basics)
Explosive Vegetation (for one more colorless mana, we get a slightly more powerful card)
Sylvan Scrying (finds Urborg, and any other utility lands you wind up running)
Now, if you are willing to stretch into non-Phyrexian, non-neutral flavor cards (but still not Mirran, never Mirran) then I would run Kodama's Reach instead of Explosive Vegetation. Yes, it's a functional reprint of Cultivate, but sometimes getting your ramp cast at 3 mana versus 4 can make a big difference. And while not *specifically* flavored for Zendikar (though it's pretty close) Expedition Map could replace Sylvan Scrying if you wanted the same effect with no color requirements.
Finally, I'd be remiss to not discuss Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. He's 110% on flavor, and he's *super* powerful. I didn't include him in the list of 10 because of his price tag and your previous comment about not being sure you wanted to run the other Praetors. But if there's just one more Praetor you'd consider running, I'd make it him. He actually gives you the Caged Sun effect for your four color deck, and basically halving your opponent's mana can be backbreaking. He does draw a lot of hate, but it's hardly undeserved. If you do decide to run him, I wouldn't take out one of the other ramp cards for him. At 8 mana he's not really going to help you "get there", he's much more of a closer.
I'll end my ramp discussion here and give you some more time to mull things over. I'd strongly recommend this be the category of cards you sort out first, since it doesn't matter how awesome the rest of your deck is if you never have the mana to play those cards